Here’s my kind of elective: grad students at NYU’s ITP (Interactive Telecommunications Program) will be presenting new musical instruments they’ve invented tonight (Wednesday) at Tonic, 8:00 PM. Any NYC-based CDM readers going to make it? CALLING CDM READERS FROM ITP: Yes, I know you read. So can someone please email me and let me know […]

Building your own cabinet for a home-built theremin or other music device? Some woodworking may be in order. Scott Sims contributes a great wooden knob tutorial for the all-audio DIY site AudioTweaks. (via thereminworld) The bad news (for some of you) is, you’ll probably want a drill press. Check out this gorgeous tube project Scott […]

[Updated:] Check out the new QuartzComposer blog; I’ll be reading! -PK I looked earlier this week at Quartz Composer, an interactive eye candy development tool that not only creates slick RSS newsfeed screensavers, but even allows audio and MIDI input and outputs MIDI control, perfect for live performance and VJing. Developer Pierre-Olivier Latour has posted […]

Apple’s not going to take legal action on this one. Think Secret breathlessly reports a “new Apple display” and goes onto report “While the description notes that “the broken line drawing of a portion of a display screen is for illustrative purposes only and forms no part of the claimed design,” it’s still rather difficult […]

I’m regularly asked what machines are best for music. On the Mac side, it’s pretty clear what you should get for your desktop: go G5. The Mac mini is great and will work fine if you’re on a bare-bones budget, but the performance gains for music are significant on the G5 systems. And now Apple’s […]

Reader reports on Tiger continue to come in; I’ll continuously update the CDM Tiger Report as they do, so check early and often! So far, experiences with Tiger have been very positive. I haven’t heard any horror stories from CDM readers, though as usual, you’ll want to double-check your hardware compatible. Notably compatible: MOTU hardware, […]

Huggable musical orbs? A tabletop music game in which you throw around virtual MIDI balls? Digital windchimes? Installations of giant ears, spheres, and a washing machine you stick your head into? Playing with sound like this must mean you’re at Cybersonica, London’s massive interactive music + sound technology expo. And CDM was there to — […]

Joshua Ellis (zenarchery.com) writes us with an insanely cool discovery on the Mac OS X 10.4 developer DVD. I’m still waiting on my Tiger shipment, but this will definitely be on my install. Josh writes: So I’m playing with the new Quartz Composer in OS X 10.4, which allows you to do weird sort of […]

Compatibility reports are coming in for Mac OS X Tiger. There are underlying Core Audio changes in 10.4, so you can expect some audio hitches. I’d especially like to confirm the possibility that audio drivers might cause freezes or prevent restart/shutdown. MacFixIt reports one reader’s M-Audio Revolution drivers were causing startup/shutdown issues. As always, do […]

Pop quiz: what instrument by pioneering “father of digital audio” (or, if you’d rather, “great-grandfather of Techno”) Max Mathews was featured on the cover of Playboy Magazine? If you guessed the IBM 704 mainframe, the computer on which Mathews generated the first computer music the world ever heard, you’d be — wrong! Would that we […]